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Breeders' Cup 2022 profiles: Home hopefuls including Flightline, Cave Rock and Cody's Wish
Ben Linfoot guides you through a dozen of the main home-trained challengers at the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland on November 4-5.
ANNAPOLIS (Todd Pletcher) – Breeders’ Cup Mile
The first American runner I come to, by virtue of the tried and trusted alphabetical system, actually has form against a European-trained horse, Nations Pride.
Charlie Appleby’s three-year-old has subsequently blown them away in the Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes at Belmont (At The Big A), but before that he was beating Annapolis in the Saratoga Derby by almost two lengths.
That was over the extended nine furlongs on ‘rain-softened’ firm ground, but Annapolis has improved since.
Dropped in trip at Saratoga, he won a Grade 3 he was entitled to win, but the really impressive performance was still to come, when he took on his elders for the first time in the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland itself. The ground was ‘firm’ firm that day and he showed a rapid turn of foot under Irad Ortiz Jr to beat Ivar and Order Of Australia by a length and a half and a nose.
The Europeans dominate the Mile betting, but it’s not a vintage group of milers coming over and turf domination is not guaranteed. The Americans have won four of the last seven renewals of this race and if it’s genuinely fast ground, this son of War Front comes into calculations.
CAVE ROCK (Bob Baffert) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Bob Baffert. He's only got a handful of runners at this year's Breeders' Cup, but in Cave Rock he'll have one of the most talked about horses of the meeting.
And the controversial dual-Triple Crown-winning trainer will be glad the Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland, not Churchill Downs - given he’s banned from the latter tracks for two years for repeated medication violations.
He’ll also be glad the American Pharoah Stakes is at Santa Anita, not Churchill Downs, too, given he trained the 1-2-3-4 there on October 9. Cave Rock led home the Baffert quartet by over five lengths, the son of Arrogate, another Baffert-trained legend, taking his career record to 3/3 with two Grade 1s already on the CV.
“He looks like a three-year-old,” Baffert said in the aftermath of the Santa Anita race, named after his 2015 Triple Crown winner. When he is a three-year-old, it will be interesting to see who trains him if he lines up for the Kentucky Derby.
There’s the small matter of a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile before then, though. The impression he’s made so far looks likely to ensure he goes off the shortest-priced favourite of the meeting (betting without Flightline, of course).
CHOCOLATE GELATO (Todd Pletcher) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
The Juvenile Fillies on the Dirt looks wide open, so what better race to start with than the Frizette Stakes, a contest that has found the winner of the Breeders’ Cup race in five of the last 10 years?
Indeed, four of the last five Juvenile Fillies winners ran in the Frizette, with both Jaywalk and Echo Zulu doing the double, although this year’s renewal was of course run at Aqueduct due to the construction work going on at Belmont. On a sloppy track Chocolate Gelato came from off the pace to justify favouritism under Irad Ortiz Jr, taking things up at the top of the stretch before running out a one-length winner over You’re My Girl.
The daughter of Practical Joke shipped to Keeneland from New York a few weeks ago as she bids to become Pletcher’s first winner of the Juvenile Fillies, remarkably, seeing as he’s won every other juvenile race at the meeting at least once.
CODY’S WISH (Bill Mott) – Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile
“It’s a different type of race for him,” Hall of Famer Bill Mott said in a Breeders’ Cup conference call on Wednesday. “Maybe we could add some dirt on the end of that chute at Keeneland and stretch it out to a one-turn mile.”
Five from five over a mile on Dirt, you would think the Big Ass Fans-sponsored contest would be the ideal slot for the son of Curlin, but two turns for the first time asks a different question of Cody’s Wish. Mind you, seven furlongs against Steve Asmussen’s star sprinter Jackie’s Warrior asked a different question of him, too, and he had all the answers as he swooped late to win the Grade 1 Forego Stakes by a length and a quarter at odds of 8/1, the hot 3/20 favourite having to settle for second.
A bit of a slow-burner, he finished his three-year-old campaign, this time last year, with a couple of Allowance Race victories at Churchill Downs, but 12 months on he’s in the big league. And despite those two-turn concerns, the Godolphin-owned colt is edging favouritism heading into race week.
DELIGHT (Jonathan Thomas) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf
Europe or America? The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf looks tough to call.
It has been the home team all the way ever since Charlie Hills’ Chriselliam sprinted clear of Testa Rossi at Santa Anita way back in 2013, with Lady Eli paving the way for the Chad Brown era of domination the year after that. Europeans have been edged out the last three renewals, but Meditate and Midnight Mile head a strong challenge this time around and there’s a good chance the prize will be heading back over the Atlantic for the first time in the best part of a decade.
But if the Americans win it again, Delight could be the one. Owned by George Strawbridge, he’s not the only familiar face connected with the filly to European racing fans, as she’s by freshman sire Mendelssohn, Aidan O’Brien’s Juvenile Turf winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic fifth.
She has this meeting in her pedigree, then, and Delight laid her own Breeders’ Cup claims down at Keeneland on October 7, when she sprinted away to land the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes under Luis Saez in great style. She looks the main threat to the Euros in this one.
EPICENTER (Steve Asmussen) – Breeders’ Cup Classic
Steve Asmussen’s quest for the Kentucky Derby goes on.
This year he must’ve thought he had it, with Epicenter sent off the 41/10 favourite for the Run for the Roses. Heading into the last quarter mile he did have it, only for 81/1 outsider Rich Strike to come and spoil the party. With no Rich Strike in the Preakness at Pimlico, the second leg of the Triple Crown, Epicenter was sent off 6/5 favourite but he got further back than ideal and couldn’t reel in Early Voting. Having raced closer to the pace than the others involved in the finish in the Kentucky Derby, he had been unlucky trip-wise and could easily have had one or two Triple Crown races in the satchel granted a bit better luck.
It wasn’t to be, but it all came together for him in the Travers, a clean and clear trip enabling him to justify even-money favouritism as he won by over five lengths, the Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike managing only fourth.
Of course, Flightline looks a formidable rival here. But as we saw with Baaeed at Ascot, reputations are there to be shot at and if the heavy favourite did underperform for whatever reason, Epicenter looks best placed to take advantage. And for Asmussen, this particular Breeders’ Cup Classic would be some compensation for missing out on the Kentucky Derby again.
FLIGHTLINE (John Sadler) – Breeders’ Cup Classic
With Baaeed in Europe and Flightline in America, 2022 has been some year for the thoroughbred.
William Haggas’ Baaeed threatened to get towards Frankel-type Timeform figures, his Juddmonte International success at York certainly inching him that way, but defeat on his final career start in the Champion Stakes ended such chat. God he was good – but not that good.
Yet across the pond there is Flightline, by Tapit out of Feathered, expertly handled by John Sadler, and the number crunchers are getting towards best-ever territory with him. In some ways he’s similar to Baaeed – neither raced as juveniles for starters – and both got even better as they raced and stepped up in trip. Flightline has only had the five races, but he has never been even remotely tested by another rival, winning the five by a staggering combined margin of 62 & ¾ lengths.
His most recent performance was the absolute jaw dropper. Going into the TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar he had 10 furlongs and two turns for the first time in his life, but he would’ve smashed Candy Ride’s track record had Flavien Prat not started to ease him down towards the winning post. This year’s Dubai World Cup winner, Country Grammar, was a staggering 19 and a half lengths adrift in second.
The racing world holds it breath to see what this monster can do in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, at a track he has yet to race on before.
GOLDEN PAL (Wesley Ward) – Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint
There doesn’t look to be a whole host of gigantic America vs Europe head to heads this year, but Golden Pal vs Highfield Princess has the potential to be the race of the meeting.
If you judged the son of Uncle Mo solely on his British form you wouldn’t give him a prayer against Highfield Princess, but for one reason or another he’s never been at his best in England, a juvenile Royal Ascot second his best go having subsequently flopped in the Nunthorpe and the King’s Stand.
On his home patch, though, he’s a different beast. Trained by Wesley Ward at Keeneland, he’s 4/4 at his home track including his maiden Breeders’ Cup success in the 2020 Juvenile Turf. A winner of the Grade 2 Woodford Stakes at Keeneland the last couple of years, he looked in great heart for his Breeders’ Cup prep on October 8 and looks sure to make a bold bid from the front in his bid for a meeting hat-trick.
It just looks a case of if Highfield Princess, or something else, can chase him down. It promises to be spectacular.
JACKIE’S WARRIOR (Steve Asmussen) – Breeders’ Cup Sprint
D-day for Jackie’s Warrior, who has been overturned at short prices at the last two Breeders’ Cups.
At Keeneland in 2020 he was sent off evens favourite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile but was beaten into fourth by subsequent Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality, while last year he had no answers to the closers in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, weakening into sixth having been sent off 1/2.
A worrying trend when you consider the son of Maclean’s Music is a short price again for this year’s renewal of the Sprint, but he’s barely put a foot wrong away from the Breeders’ Cup in the last couple of seasons – bar a defeat at 3/20 in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga last time out, where a pace burn-up saw Dirt Mile hopeful Cody’s Wish overhaul him in the final 50 yards.
A winner of five Grade 1s, including a verdict over four-time Grade 1-winner Life Is Good, Jackie’s Warrior has the form to win this – it’s just whether he can finally bring his best to the Breeders’.
LIFE IS GOOD (Todd Pletcher) – Breeders’ Cup Classic
Talking of Life Is Good, he’s another one trying to halt the Flightline juggernaut in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
And, unlike Jackie’s Warrior, he has brought his A-game to the Breeders’ Cup before, storming to Dirt Mile success at Del Mar this time last year when justifying 7/10 favouritism without fuss. The meeting’s banker home and hosed, Todd Pletcher signalled his intent to go for the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream and he duly obliged there, too, seeing off Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Knicks Go with a terrific display.
Defeat to Country Grammar at Meydan was a low point – and it somewhat underlines the task in hand to beat Flightline – but he’s been building to a peak since then, returning with a win at Belmont in July and taking in victories in the Whitney and the Woodward, traditional Breeders’ Cup Classic preps.
He could’ve been more impressive in the latter, but he’d be a short price for this in a normal year with improvement expected. But it seems there’s nothing normal about Flightline.
NEST (Todd Pletcher) – Breeders’ Cup Distaff
It has been some year for Todd Pletcher’s Nest since she bolted up at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes back in April.
Second in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs after that, she posted the same position against the colts in the Belmont Stakes, staying on well over the 1m4f trip to chase home stablemate Mo Donegal. That was a great run after a tardy start, and she came out of it thriving when dropped in trip. A 12-and-a-half-length winner over Secret Oaks in the American Oaks at Saratoga in July, she beat the same rival at the same track in the Alabama Stakes after that, before obliging at odds of 1/20 in her Breeders’ Cup prep at Belmont (At The Big A).
The one nagging point could be getting out quickly over this trip against this class of rival. She got away with it in the Alabama, but it counted against her in the Belmont and she wouldn’t want any early stumbles in the Distaff if she’s to crown a great season in style.
WAR LIKE GODDESS (Bill Mott) – Breeders’ Cup Turf
The European team – or specifically Charlie Appleby – seem to have a tight grip on the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Appleby had a plethora of options for this race, including last year’s winner Yibir, but he’s plumped for Nations Pride and Rebel’s Romance – and I’m finding it hard to get away from the alluring claims of the former.
The Americans have won this race only once in the last seven years, as well, but if they are to upset the applecart in the 2022 Turf then Bill Mott’s War Like Goddess could be the one to do it. The English Channel mare is two from two at Keeneland and she’s got good Breeders’ Cup form to her name, too, having finished a close-up third in last year’s Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar, where she was just headed late on after being sent off favourite.
She’s a strong stayer at the trip having won over 1m4f on five occasions from five goes, her win in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont (At The Big A) last time out on October 8 a perfect prep for this assignment.
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